Where are you donating?

So where are you donating for aid to victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami disaster? I chose "Doctors Without Borders". I prefer non-religious based charities. I also don't like the charities which have high bureaucracy costs. Sometimes bigger isn't better.

I found it difficult choosing precisely how much money to give them. I finally decided on 1 week's wage, a relatively paltry amount when you think about it. Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher, argues that we in the affluent countries ought to be giving much more, as much as whatever is left over after necessities. If I did that then I could probably afford to donate like 15 weeks of wages, or perhaps even more. I mean, what is really a necessity?

Whether or not you agree with Singer, the amount we do actually donate every year (not just for disaster relief, but to global charity programs in general) is shamefully low. If we all donated a paltry amount like a week's or a day's wage, then it would certainly make a huge difference. For now, though, I urge you to donate something for the tsunami emergency. Here's a useful link:

I came across an interview with someone from the American Institute of Philanthropy that rates various charities in terms of reliability, fraction of donation that went to final destination, etc. They had the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and CARE near the top, and recommended them above others. With the Red Cross, about 92% of your money gets to the needy. Charities with poor grades consume about half the money for their sustenance.

Staff: Mentor

In the UK, 10 or so of our top charities (all of the ones that i would choose, plus several i wouldn't have considered) have teamed up and pooled all their resources to create a unified tsunami relief effort, so I'd imagine it no longer matters where I send my money, as it will all end up in the same place.